After the replay, I thought that Carbery made a few mistakes but wasn't the problem. He was good in the first 20 minutes but started to overdo things as he got impatient.

Performance wise we were a little off but still doing some things well. Both wingers were reasonably quiet but Ferg had a day to forget, no real positive impact.

Despite all that it was a game we could have won through chances from offloads around the fringes. It was hard to get quick ball but we looked dangerous when we did. Lineout was a big improvement. Looks like we'd done a bit of extra work there.

Stringing together enough to pressure them after their warning might have brought a yellow but instead we made a few mistakes and conceded a few penalties.

Anyone have any theories as to why Ross Byrne was not used on Saturday given how the game was going; how Joey was going; how Scarlets are sh!t hot right now?

It was really odd to see Ross Byrne ride pine given all of the above. Every other sub was used. He is a proven performer at this level...like the other subs (bar Porter)...so what was that about?

Joey may be feeling deflated and now Ross has cause for introspection too...two blunted 10s for the price of one match.

Notable that Joey given the place kicking duties too. Was this and the full 80 evidence of the hand of Joe Schmidt'?

Garry Ringrose was a serious clutch place-kicker at school. Are his talents in that space to be ignored into the future? Other than J10 we have genuine placekickign options in Joey, Ross...and Garry as far as I am concerned. Why don't they keep his skillset in this department sharp?

wixfjord wrote:Ah jaysus This in the year we broke the Pro12 try record? Come on dude!

We didn't just beat it. We wiped the floor with it. We scored 25% more tries than the previous record. The idea we need to be more clinical in big games comes from the fact that we tend to score less tries in them. Of course that's because big games tend to be the tougher ones and so the same standards shouldn't apply. We were pretty clinical against Wasps though. And while we didn't get the tries we were pretty clinical against Clermont I thought too. Those penalties to bring us back into it were exactly what we needed to be doing. I mean we won the last 60 minutes 12-22. But anyway....

Suspect you're probably right Backrower in your theory that it was down to Joe Schmidt being present and wanting to view Joey at 10 as as to why Ross Byrne didn't feature for any game time on Saturday.

backrower8 wrote:Anyone have any theories as to why Ross Byrne was not used on Saturday given how the game was going; how Joey was going; how Scarlets are sh!t hot right now?

It was really odd to see Ross Byrne ride pine given all of the above. Every other sub was used. He is a proven performer at this level...like the other subs (bar Porter)...so what was that about?

Joey may be feeling deflated and now Ross has cause for introspection too...two blunted 10s for the price of one match.

Notable that Joey given the place kicking duties too. Was this and the full 80 evidence of the hand of Joe Schmidt'?

Garry Ringrose was a serious clutch place-kicker at school. Are his talents in that space to be ignored into the future? Other than J10 we have genuine placekicking options in Joey, Ross...and Garry as far as I am concerned. Why don't they keep his skillset in this department sharp?

Think it was mentioned somewhere by a current player that it wouldn't be realistic to have someone as a nominated kicker unless they were practising especially in the week before.

Also that the sometimes kickers do practice but not to the degree as above.

backrower8 wrote:Anyone have any theories as to why Ross Byrne was not used on Saturday given how the game was going; how Joey was going; how Scarlets are sh!t hot right now?

It was really odd to see Ross Byrne ride pine given all of the above. Every other sub was used. He is a proven performer at this level...like the other subs (bar Porter)...so what was that about?

Joey may be feeling deflated and now Ross has cause for introspection too...two blunted 10s for the price of one match.

Notable that Joey given the place kicking duties too. Was this and the full 80 evidence of the hand of Joe Schmidt'?

Garry Ringrose was a serious clutch place-kicker at school. Are his talents in that space to be ignored into the future? Other than J10 we have genuine placekickign options in Joey, Ross...and Garry as far as I am concerned. Why don't they keep his skillset in this department sharp?

It was a call on priorities maybe - win the game or give Carberry as much game time as possible.But JS could well have been involved.

Mirror, Mirror on the Wall who's the greatest player of them all? It is Drico your majesty.